Support Jayne Marie's NICU Journey

Our daughter, Jayne Marie Zabrowski, was born on April 9, 2025 at 23 weeks gestation, at 1 pound 2 oz.

I went into the Newton Wellesley ER after work on April 8, 22 weeks and 6 days pregnant, thinking I may have had a bad urinary infection. Instead we were given the gift of life, Jayne. “Your urine test came back negative. You are 4cm dilated, and this baby is coming tonight. You will have to make a decision. Stay here and have her, and hope for the best, or be taken by ambulance into BWH, with her still inside of you, where they have a NICU that handles this. We don’t have the proper unit to be able to do what they can to save your baby. You’re against the clock, if she moves any deeper in the birth canal, it may be impossible for us to get her out alive.”The words ring in my ears still today. It wasn’t a question for John and I. We tried for 8 long years with no success to become pregnant and start a family. We were doing everything we could to save her. It took one look between the two of us, not a word spoken, and John was requesting the ambulance for us. In what felt like less than ten minutes I was down route 9, pulling into BWH, and in the operating room surrounded by a team of 30 doctors. Unsuccessfully enduring the pain of trying to get an epidural, the doctor leaned over to John and I and said, “We will set a timer for 5 minutes and if we cannot get it, we need to put her under general anesthesia, we can’t risk losing the baby.” My heart sank because I knew I wouldn’t remember anything of my daughter’s birth, and knew waking up I would have no idea for a moment if she survived or not. I watched as they started to suit up John for the operation, the bright lights of the operating room making me dizzy. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in a recovery room with John and my dad by my side at 2 in the morning. The first thing John said was “She’s here. And she’s alive and breathing.” The next few days were nothing but constant panic and worry that she wasn’t going to be able to fight to stay alive. Between the beeping monitors watching her oxygen and blood pressure levels, the sound of the nurses constantly in and out, the doctors trying to explain things to us and what the outcome could be, social workers and advocates telling us they were there for us, former nicu moms saying they understood, the first 72 hours were an absolute blur. Then, the first week passed. We spent 12-18 in the neonatal intensive care unit every day. And then after that, another medicine was taken away. Then, we could touch her. After that, more meds she was off. Then the day came where she was stable enough to hold. She opened her eyes after that. And then, the meds were all gone for now. A nurse said to us, “I have been doing this for over 20 years and have never seen a baby not need medicine like this at her age.” All she was on was oxygen and by week 3, we had her feeding well and growing back to her birth weight. She ended up getting down to 300 grams, and back up to 500 grams in 3 weeks.

With all of that, I forgot to take care of myself. I ended up with an infection in my c section that got out of control. Before they could get me into surgery to fix it, my c section ended up opening up by itself while sitting with my daughter, and I was rushed into the OR once again. The first attempt at controlling my infection failed, and they were forced to install a wound vac into me and admitted me back into the hospital. 6 long days of agony, of worry, of defeat. 6 days of having a machine attached to my body with wires and plugs having to go everywhere I did. Finally on my 3rd surgery, they were able to fix it. And I could go home again.

John and I were not prepared financially for what happened to us. We live paycheck to paycheck. We had another 4 months to become even more stable and save until she came home. We just moved 6 days before she came into this world into an apartment that is $400 more a month than we were used to because our old landlord was selling the house and we had to move before she was born. We are 45 minutes from her hospital room, which means a 45 min drive one way to see our baby. Which means we are spending a lot on gas, as well as the parking garage fees, and trying to keep ourselves fed properly. We have gone through our vacation time, sick time, and savings after paying all of our bills for the month of April. We have both applied for help from the state, but we are fearful that isn’t going to cover everything we need until we can go back to work. It also takes 4-6 weeks for that to kick in, and it is about 1/2 of what we usually bring in for income. I cannot take care of myself right now, so John has to. Which means he can’t work until I am healed and able to return to work before she comes home.

As hard as it is, we are asking for help to ease our bills and rent until we can get to a better place financially. Having to worry about all of it as well as worrying about our baby in the NICU, and worrying about my healing properly without getting another infection, is too much. We don’t wish this on anyone.

Anything helps. We are so grateful for the support we have received from everyone. And will continue to be grateful everyday for the miracle of life, our Jayne Marie.